During May, the Sea of Stars journal will act as the central list for all the articles. If you write something as part of the Carnival, then please leave a comment with link below that it can be found by all interested.

This month’s theme is:

Occult Mysteries and Magic.

While we tend to use the word Occult is a general sense of magic and strange things, its original meaning was simply hidden or secret, so we will be looking at the secrets behind and intertwined with magic in the world and in campaign settings. We can think about questions such as:

Is magic practiced openly or only in secret? Are there legal or social punishment for magical practice? Or are only some kinds of magic banned?

How is magic used behind the scenes in a setting for good or ill? Are there magical conspiracies afoot? Does magical power imply other kind of power (political, criminal, economic)?

Who controls magical knowledge and its dissemination? Can anyone learn magic? Or is it confined to particular people?

Obviously different types of campaigns will answer these questions very differently, the occult landscape of a modern supernatural game (say Unknown Armies) is literally worlds apart from the standard fantasy world (say D&D or Pathfinder).

I will try to answer all the three trios of questions for the Sea of Stars over the month, but I will start with the first triad today:

Is magic practiced openly or only in secret? Openly, the Sea of Stars only exists and thrives because of very visible magics, such as the captive Sun and the floating islands. The use of magic is common but not omnipresent, though every settlement the size of a town or larger is almost guaranteed to have some sort of magic worker, and even villages often have a minor priest or practitioner of natural magic on hand.

Are there legal or social punishment for magical practice? Some societies, and some dragons, actively oppose certain kinds of magic but societal ostracism is a more common punishment than legal methods. Though some dragons have outlawed certain magics in their realms for reasons known only to themselves.

Or are only some kinds of magic banned? Only the Moon Sect is banned outright, it exists only in secret societies and underground cells. While the Empress disapproves of summoning and necrourgic magic, only the opening of permanent gates to other realms and the creation of self-replicating undead is expressly forbidden.

Other ideas that you might want to pursue:

Secret Societies.

Lost or hidden books or libraries of magical knowledge.

Mystery Cults.

Fallen civilizations, especially if magic caused their downfall.

At the end of May, I shall write a short compilation article gathering all the submissions. I look forward to reading your contributions. Good luck and have fun!

Your thought-provoking topic made me think long and hard about where my campaign is failing to achieve its goals. One of these areas is divine magic, and the way it should tie the Heroes and the culture to the cults and the gods: